Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/89

Rh In 1846 began a fresh chapter in Ramtanu's life. In that year the Krishnagar College was opened, being one of the first large colleges outside Calcutta and one of the first-fruits of the revival of education which had taken such firm root in the Capital. It was under the patronage of the Maharaja Siris Chandra of Krishnagar who entered his son's name as one of the first pupils and himself accepted the position of a member of the managing committee. Captain D. L. Richardson was appointed first Principal, Ramtanu being given the post of secod master under him in the Collegiate School. Here Ramtanu found himself in congenial surroundings after his own heart. The same struggle that was going on between the old forces and the new in Calcutta was soon in actual progress in Krishnagar. The Maharaja favoured the party of progress and even went so far as to open a branch of the Brahmo Samaj in his own palace. A very large number of the students and teachers of the newly established college joined him, but Ramtanu from the first had not been wholly favourable towards its teachings. He had been entirely opposed to its first attacks on Christianity and had not sympathised with its attempts to attach to the Vedas the character of a divine revelation. Ramtanu's breadth of view and broadmindedness were remarkable in an age when bigotry was rife. 'Our desire should be to see truth triumph,' he wrote at this time. 'Let the votaries of all religions